Electronic equipment for a wireless communication system and method for operating an electronic equipment for a wireless communication system

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to an electronic equipment for a wireless communication system comprising a near field interface ( 4 ) for exchanging contact information with at least one further electronic equipment via near field communication, said contact information serving for communicating within the wireless communication system, a group editing means ( 3 ) for creating a group of contact information comprising at least the received contact information, whereby each contact information of the group relates to an electronic equipment, and a communication means ( 8 ) for setting up a communication within the wireless communication system to the group of electronic equipments in accordance with the group of contact information. The present invention further relates to a method for operating such an electronic equipment.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an electronic equipment for a wirelesscommunication system. Specifically, the present invention relates to theproblem of handling groups of contacts.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

In recent times an increasing number of applications have been designedthat can be used by groups of users, such as networked games, chat roomsor conference calls. Further, efforts have been made to adapt thosegroup applications also to electronic equipments for wirelesscommunication systems, such as mobile telephones, pagers, personaldigital assistants, electronic organisers and so forth.

One into this direction is the software platform Open Trek, which isprimarily intended to assist the development of multi-player networkedgames on electronic equipments. Open Trek is similar to game developmentenvironments on stationary PCs, but is fully optimised to work withmobile devices. Open Trek uses a peer to peer approach with no centralserver. It is the devices themselves that form a peer to peer networkbased on what other devices are available on the current wirelessnetwork. As this technology uses WLAN, IR or Bluetooth to connect to theother users, Open Trek has the inherent problems of those wirelessconnectivity technologies in searching for and selecting other groupmembers.

SUMMARY

The general problem with state of the art electronic equipments forwireless communication systems as outlined above is that forparticipating in group applications and to be able to address a group ofpeople, either several individual addresses must be defined or a sendlist or group must be defined in an application like a phone book or abuddy list. This requires a high effort by the user as the use of thecommonly available means, e.g. pressing keys to make menu selections andentering address information, do not allow to easily and quickly createa group. Further, although a user may put up with the effort of defininga group, this group would have a set of static members, which is notapplicable to the the personal networks of users, which are fairly fluidwith members being added or deleted dynamically and over time. There arealso fairly many occasions when a group needs to be defined quickly andon the spot, e.g. when transferring an object to several recipients orconducting a phone conference.

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide anelectronic equipment for a wireless communication system as well as amethod for operating such an electronic equipment, which enable an easyand quick creation of groups in order to set up a wireless communicationwithin the people of the group.

The above-mentioned object is achieved by an electronic equipment for awireless communication system according to claim 1.

The electronic equipment according to the present invention comprises anear field interface for exchanging contact information with at leastone further electronic equipment via near field communication, saidcontact information serving for communicating within the wirelesscommunication system, a group editing means for creating a group ofcontact information comprising at least the received contactinformation, whereby each contact information of the group relates to anelectronic equipment, and a communication means for setting up acommunication within the wireless communication system to the group ofelectronic equipments in accordance with the group of contactinformation.

The above-mentioned object is further achieved by a method for operatingan electronic equipment for a wireless communication system according toclaim 13.

The method according to the present invention comprises the steps ofexchanging contact information with at least one further electronicequipment via near field communication, said contact information servingfor communicating within the wireless communication system, creating agroup of contact information comprising at least the received contactinformation, whereby each contact information of the group relates to anelectronic equipment, and setting up a communication within the wirelesscommunication system to the group of electronic equipments in accordancewith the group of contact information.

In the context of the present application and the present invention, theterm “electronic equipment for a wireless communication system” includesany kind of portable radio communication equipment. The term “portableradio communication equipment” includes all equipments such as mobiletelephones, mobile cell phones, pagers, personal digital assistants,communicators, i.e. electronic organisers, smartphones or the like. Theterm “wireless communication system” relates to any kind ofcommunication or telecommunication system which enables the wirelesstransfer of information, including but not being limited to Bluetooth,Infrared or wireless LAN and in particular including cellularcommunication systems as e.g. the GSM and/or the UMTS or any otherequivalent system.

It should be emphasised that the term “comprises/comprising” when usedin this specification is taken to specify the presence of statedfeatures, integers, steps of components but does not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps,components or groups thereof.

Preferably, further contact information is exchanged during thecommunication within the wireless communication system set up by thecommunication means.

Preferably, the operating distance of the near field communication lieswithin a range of 0 to 30 cm.

Further, preferably the near field interface operates at a radiofrequency (RF) range of 13.56 MHz.

Advantageously, the contact information is stored in a contact database.

Further advantageously, a state of the electronic equipment is definedby a user via an input means.

Preferably, the type of the exchanged contact information depends on thestate of the electronic equipment.

Further, preferably the type of communication set up by thecommunication means depends on the type of the exchanged contactinformation.

The type of communication set up by the communication means may dependon a selection by the user.

Preferably, the communication is set up by the communication meansimmediately after receiving the contact information via the near fieldinterface.

The communication may be set up by the communication means at a timeselected by the user

Advantageously, the user can change the group of contact information byan input means.

An output means can provide a feedback to the user upon exchanging thecontact information via the near field interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of exampleonly, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing schematically the elements of theelectronic equipment according to the present invention and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing schematically the process steps accordingto the method of present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an electronic equipment 1according to the present invention. The electronic equipment 1 is ableto transmit and receive information in a wireless communication system,such as Bluetooth, Infrared, wireless LAN, the UMTS, the GSM or anyother available wireless cellular telecommunication system.

For the transmission and reception of wireless signals in thetelecommunication system, the electronic equipment 1 comprises acommunication means 8 which in turn comprises all components necessaryfor receiving and transmitting signals within the telecommunicationsystem. For example, the communication means 8 may comprise an antennawhich is connected to a transmitter/receiver means, which e.g. can beembodied as an high frequency (HF) unit in case of a GSM or a UMTSsystem. The transmitter/receiver means is connected to furtherprocessing devices necessary for (de)modulating, (de)coding and so forththe received information signals depending on the wireless communicationsystem in which the information signals are being transmitted andreceived. It is to be noted, that the electronic equipment 1 in practicecomprises all necessary means and units to be operated in the respectivewireless communication system. For the sake of clarity, FIG. 1 and thepresent description only show and relate to functionalities which arenecessary to understand the present invention.

The electronic equipment 1 further comprises an input means 6 forinputting information, whereby the input means 6 may be a key pad, atouch pad, means for voice recognition, a camera, an interface forconnecting the electronic equipment 1 to any other device via cable orwireless connection or any other means enabling the input ofinformation. The electronic equipment 1 further comprises an outputmeans 7 serving for outputting information. The output means 7 herebymay be a display, loudspeakers, an interface for connecting theelectronic equipment 1 to any other device via cable or wirelessconnection or any other means enabling the output of information. Incase the electronic equipment 1 is a portable cell phone, then theoutput means 7 can e.g. be a usual cell phone display and the inputmeans 6 corresponds to the usual input keys enabling a user to inputnumbers, characters and symbols.

The electronic equipment 1 further comprises a control unit 5, which cane.g. be embodied in a microprocessor, central processing unit or thelike. The central control unit 5 controls the operation of theelectronic equipment 1. Therefore, the control unit 5 is connected tothe input means 6, the output means 7 and the communication means 8.

The control unit 5 is further connected to a contact data base 2 forstoring data, information and/or software codes necessary for setting upa communication within the wireless telecommunication system. Thecontact data base 2 therefore comprises an information sourceidentification memory, e.g. a phone book memory, for storing informationsource identification information, e.g. phone numbers, e-mail addresses,IP addresses and the like, and additional information relating to theidentity of the information sources such as names, images and the like.

The electronic equipment 1 further comprises a near field interface 4for communicating via a near field communication with other electronicequipments. The near field interface 4 is able to communicate with atleast one further near field interface over short distances. In oneembodiment the known near field communication technique may be employedfor the near field communication but also any other technique forcommunicating over short distances may be used. The near fieldcommunication (NFC) technique bases on the idea of an intuitive way ofconnecting objects simply by holding them next to each other without apreceding exchange of identification information or the like beingnecessary. That means that if two electronic equipments each having anear field interface are close together they are able to communicatewith each other via near field communication. Preferably, the near fieldinterfaces operate in the unregulated RF band of 13.56 MHz. This meansthat no restrictions are applied and no licenses are required for theuse of NFC devices in this RF band. Of course, each country imposescertain limitations on the electro-magnetic emissions in this RF band.The limitations mean that in practice the distance at which the devicescan connect to each other is restricted and this distance may vary fromcountry to country. Generally speaking, the operating distance is up to30 cm. With the nearfield interface 4 according to the present inventioninformation can be exchanged with other electronic equipments which areneeded for setting up a communication within the wireless communicationsystem by the communication means 8. That means that e.g. telephonenumbers, e-mail addresses or the like can be exchanged via the nearfieldinterface 4 and further be stored in the contact data base 2. It is tobe noted, that the present invention is not restricted to the NFCtechnique and its specific technical embodiments, but may employ anyother communication technique for communication over short distances.

The electronic equipment 1 further comprises a group editing means 3 forcreating groups of contacts out of the contacts stored in the contactdata base 2, which will be explained in detail in the following. Thecontrol unit 5 is further also connected to the contact database 2, thegroup editing means 3 and the near field interface 4.

The main idea underlying the present invention is as follows: Whenholding together at least two electronic equipments 1 according to thepresent invention each having a near field interface 4 enabling thecommunication via near field communication, then contact informationnecessary for setting up a communication via the wireless communicationsystem can be exchanged between the electronic equipments. Such contactinformation may e.g. be a phone number, an address for sending a shortmessage, an e-mail or data content or the like. Specifically, if morethan two electronic equipments are brought together in order tocommunicate via the nearfield interfaces 4, then all the electronicequipments can exchange the respective information with each other. Thereceived information is then stored in the contact data base 2 and thegroup editing means 3 creates a group of contacts comprising at leastthe contacts which have been received via the nearfield communicationfrom the other electronic equipments. The user further has thepossibility via an input means 6 to change the group of contacts, thatis to add further contacts already stored in the data base 2 or todelete contacts from the group. The communication means 8 thenimmediately or at some later point sets up a communication, e.g. sets upa telephone conference or sends a message, to the group of electronicequipments via the wireless telecommunication system. With thismechanism according to the present invention a group for communicationcan be simply created just by holding the electronic equipments togetherwithout the necessity for each and every one of the users to input thecontact information via a menu into the contact data base.

In a further embodiment the exchange of contact information is notexclusively done over the near field communication but also partly overthe communication within the wireless communication system. That means,that only some contact information necessary to bootstrap thecommunication within the wireless communication system, e.g. Bluetooth,GSM or the like, is exchanged via near field communication and thatfurther contact information, e.g. vCards containing information likepictures, is then exchanged via the wireless communication system,thereby utilising the faster data rate connection.

The known NFC protocol is based on a wireless interface connecting twoparties using a peer-to-peer communication protocol. The NFC protocoldistinguishes between the Initiator and the Target of the communication.Any device may be either an Initiator or a Target. The Initiator, asfollows from the name, is the device that initiates and controls theexchange of data. The Target is the device that answers the request fromthe Initiator. The NFC protocol also distinguishes between two modes ofoperation: An active mode and a passive mode. All devices support bothcommunication modes. The distinction is as follows: In the active modeof communication both devices generate their own RF field to carry thedata. In the passive mode of communication only one device generates theRF field while the other device uses load modulation to transfer thedata and the protocol specifies that in the passive mode ofcommunication the Initiator is the device responsible to generate the RFfield.

The NFC protocol uses different modulation and bit encoding schemesdepending on the speed. While establishing the communication, theInitiator starts the communication in a particular mode at a particularspeed. The Target determines the current speed and the associatedlow-level-protocol automatically and answers accordingly. Thecommunication is terminated either on the command from the application,e.g. from the messaging or calling application, or when the devices moveout of range.

For exchanging contact information between more than two devices, theNFC protocol has to be adapted accordingly. In the active mode everydevice sends its contact information and each device continues with thenear field communication until for a predetermined time no new contactinformation is received or until a command is received from theapplication, e.g. when the message of a message application has beensent. In the passive mode the communication is set up by the Initiator.In this case it is also possible for the Initiator to request onlyspecific contact information, e.g. only the phone number or only thee-mail address. The other devices then answer accordingly.

The process of the method according to the present invention will beexplained in detail with reference to FIG. 2. The process starts in stepS0 e.g. with switching on the electronic equipment 1. In the next stepS1 the user can input a state for the electronic equipment 1 via theinput means 6. The user can either input a basic state, e.g. an idlemode of the electronic equipment 1, or some specific state e.g. amessaging application, the exchange of v-cards, push-to-talk or avoice/video phone conference application. In the next step S2 a nearfield communication between the electronic equipment 1 and at least onefurther electronic equipment is triggered by simply holding theelectronic equipments together, e.g. to a distance of up to 30 cm. Inthe next step S3 the electronic equipment 1 checks the state of theelectronic equipment 1 entered by the user in step S1. In step S4 theelectronic equipment 1 then decides if a specific state as has beenexplained above has been input. If this is the case, then the electronicequipment 1 in step S5 sets up a passive or active mode NFC, requeststhe specific information and exchanges the specific information with theat least one further electronic equipment over the NFC relating to thespecific state entered in step S1. Such a contact information relatingto a specific state can be e.g. an address for messaging or a phonenumber. After receiving the contact information the electronic equipment1 stores the contact information in the contact data base 2. After theexchange of the specific information over the NFC the group editingmeans 3 in step S6 creates a group of contacts, whereby each contactrelates to one further electronic equipment to which the electronicequipment 1 has recently set up a near field communication via the nearfield interface 4. In addition, then the user via the input means 6 hasthe possibility to change the created group, that is to add furthercontact information or to delete contact information. Hereby, the addedcontact information may be either been stored in the contact database 2or may be input manually by the user.

Otherwise, if in step S4 the electronic equipment 1 has decided that theuser has not input a specific state input, i.e. the user has input abasic state in step S1, then the electronic equipment in step S9exchanges general information over the NFC with the other devices. Thiscan be accomplished either in a passive or an active mode of the NFC. Instep S10 the group editing means 3 creates a more generic group that canbe used for any purpose, e.g. parts of it can be used for addressingwhen conducting a conversation with the other contacts in the groupusing messaging application. In the next step S11 the user then has thepossibility to now input a specific state in order to decide how to usethe created generic group. In addition, then the user via the inputmeans 6 has the possibility to change the created group, that is to addfurther contact information or to delete contact information. Hereby,the added contact information may be either been stored in the contactdatabase 2 or may be input manually by the user.

For example, the user can choose a messaging application so that amessage communication is set up to the created group.

The process then in every case goes to step S7 where the group ishandled according to the specific state input, that is the communicationmeans 8 sets up a communication to all the electronic equipments of thegroup via the wireless telecommunication system and according to thespecific state, that is the communication means 8 either sends amessage, exchanges v-cards or puts up a phone conference or the like.Hereby, the communication may either be set up immediately or at a latertime. The point in time may be either automatically defined by theapplication or manually by the user via the input means 6. In case thecommunication is set up at a later time, then the created group isstored in the contact database 2 for later use. In the next step S8 thegroup handling is stopped, that is the communication means 8 terminatesthe communication set up in the previous step S7. The process ends instep S12 e.g. with switching off the electronic equipment 1.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible that theelectronic equipment 1 and the implemented group editing means 3 handlemore than one group at a time. If e.g. in a group of several electronicequipments a first electronic equipment sends a request for exchangingcontact information relating to a message application and a secondelectronic equipment requests contact information for setting up a phoneconference, then in each electronic equipment being part of the grouptwo groups are created, whereby one group relates to the messageapplication and the other group relates to the phone conference. Alsoduring the nearfield communication information relating to both types ofgroups are exchanged.

This allows to handle electronic equipments being in different states.In this case either general information is exchanged or a supersetinformation is exchanged based on the specific states of the electronicequipments. E.g. if one electronic equipment is in a messaging state andone in a videotelephone state, contact information relating to messagingand videotelephone applications is exchanged, allowing subsequentselection of either mode of communication. Or general information isexchanged as in the basic state.

Further, with the present invention it is possible to add group membersduring an ongoing communication. If for example a first and a seconduser are having a telephone conversation, then a third user can join byholding his electronic equipment near to the electronic equipment ofeither the first or the second user. Thereby, during the ongoingtelephone conversation contact information between the electronicequipments are exchanged and then a conference conversation between allthree users can be set up.

In another embodiment instead of defining a specific state by the user,one of the electronic equipments can act as an administrator and isresponsible for the choice of the communication channel.

It is possible to output information to the user via the output means 7in order to notify the user when the contact information over the NFChas been exchanged. In yet another embodiment, an auto-accept settingcan be chosen, hence no feedback information regarding the exchangedcontact information is provided.

1. An elecronic equipment for a wireless communication system comprisinga near field interface for exchanging contact information with at leastone further electronic equipment via near field communication, saidcontact information comprising a target address of the respectivefurther electronic equipment within the wireless communication systemand serving for communicating within the wireless communication system,a group editing means for creating a group of contact informationcomprising at least the received contact information, whereby eachcontact information of the group relates to an electronic equipment, acommunication means for setting up a communication within the wirelesscommunication system to the group of electronic equipments in accordancewith the group of contact information, and an input means for changingthe group of contact information by the user.
 2. The electronicequipment according to claim 1, wherein further contact information isexchanged during the communication within the wireless communicationsystem set up by the communication means.
 3. The electronic equipmentaccording to claim 1, wherein the operating distance of the near fieldcommunication lies within a range of 0 to 30 cm.
 4. The electronicequipment according to claim 1, wherein the near field interfaceoperates at a radio frequency (RF) of approximately 13.56 MHz.
 5. Theelectronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the contactinformation is stored in a contact database.
 6. The electronic equipmentaccording to claim 1, wherein a state of the electronic equipment isdefined by a user via an input means.
 7. The electronic equipmentaccording to claim 6, wherein the type of the exchanged contactinformation depends on the state of the electronic equipment.
 8. Theelectronic equipment according to claim 7, wherein the type ofcommunication set up by the communication means depends on the type ofthe exchanged contact information.
 9. The electronic equipment accordingto claim 1, wherein a type of communication set up by the communicationmeans depends on a selection by the user.
 10. The electronic equipmentaccording to claim 1, wherein the communication is set up by thecommunication means immediately after receiving the contact informationvia the near field interface.
 11. The electronic equipment according toclaim 1, wherein the communication is set up by the communication meansat a time selected by the user.
 12. (canceled)
 13. The electronicequipment according to claim 1, wherein an output means provides afeedback to the user upon exchanging the contact information via thenear field interface.
 14. A method for operating an electronic equipmentfor a wireless communication system, comprising the steps of exchangingcontact information with at least one further electronic equipment vianear field communication, said contact information comprising a targetaddress of the respective further electronic equipment within thewireless communication system and serving for communicating within thewireless communication system, creating a group of contact informationcomprising at least the received contact information, whereby eachcontact information of the group relates to an electronic equipment,changing the group of contact information by the user, and setting up acommunication within the wireless communication system to the group ofelectronic equipments in accordance with the group of contactinformation.
 15. The method according to claim 14, comprising exchangingfurther contact information during the communication within the wirelesscommunication system.
 16. The method according to claim 14, comprisingstoring the contact information in a contact database.
 17. The methodaccording to claim 14, comprising accepting an input of state of theelectronic equipment via an input means.
 18. The method according toclaim 17, comprising exchanging a type of contact information dependingon the state of the electronic equipment.
 19. The method according toclaim 18, comprising setting up the type of communication depending onthe type of the exchanged contact information.
 20. The method accordingto claim 14, comprising setting up a type of communication depending ona selection by the user.
 21. The method according to claim 14,comprising setting up the communication immediately after receiving thecontact information.
 22. The method according to claim 14, comprisingsetting up the communication at a time selected by the user. 23.(canceled)
 24. The method according to claim 14, comprising providing afeedback to the user upon exchanging the contact information via thenear field interface.